Despite having a proposed ordinance that’s been read two of the three times required before voting, the Russellville City Council will reintroduce an ordinance with changed verbiage Thursday that will prohibit the carrying of handguns in city-owned parks.

The ordinance, which was not available as of Friday for public review, will prohibit the carrying of a handgun within a designated city park, preventing those with concealed carry permits from carrying a firearm in all of Russellville’s parks. City officials said the ordinance will be available next week for the public to see.

Because a majority of the 17 parks within city limits are owned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers but leased through the city of Russellville, they have separate guidelines regarding concealed weapons than city-owned parks. The ordinance was originally proposed to provide consistency through both the Corps and the city, Russellville Mayor Bill Eaton said Friday.

“If we use Corps guidelines in all city parks, then that makes it more simple for those who enforce the law,” he said. “(The ordinance) is to make it a more clearly-defined way for our law enforcement to know how to apply the law. The city’s interest was to make all city parks comply to the one standard rather than having two standards and a law enforcement officer having to know in every park in the city which regulation applied there.”

Corps guidelines prohibit the carrying of any firearms — with exceptions for hunting in certain areas — in any Corps-owned park. The proposed city ordinance would run consistently with those guidelines, Eaton said.

Recreation and Parks Director Mack Hollis, who proposed the ordinance after it was suggested to him by the Recreation and Parks Commission, said worry regarding the separation of guidelines grew after an officer received a complaint of a man with a concealed weapon in a park. Because the park was Corps-owned, the man was asked to leave, Hollis said.

Following the incident, the commission asked for consistency within the guidelines, Hollis said.

“We were trying to keep anyone from carrying a concealed weapon to a playground or a pavilion,” he said. “Already they can’t carry it into the Hughes Center, they can’t carry it into the pool, they can’t carry it in an athletic park and they can’t carry it in any government building, so that doesn’t leave a lot of places. That basically leaves playgrounds and pavilions, and that’s all we’re wanting to do.”

George Holt, president of the Arkansas River Valley Gun Club, said those who carry firearms and have a concealed carry permit don’t carry their weapons to enact violence, but to defend themselves and their families.

“I don’t think anybody has the expectation to use a firearm anymore than they expect to use the jack that’s inside of their car,” he said.

Holt added the ordinance, if read three times and passed, is an intrusion on Second Amendment rights.

“I want that right (to carry a concealed weapon) and the Second Amendment gives me that right and what the city of Russellville’s trying to do is take that right from me,” he said. “There’s some things that are more important than trying to fix something that’s not broken.”

While Holt said he feels his rights are being violated, Alderman Mark Tripp, the City Council liaison for the Recreation and Parks Department, said the ordinance was proposed strictly to protect patrons of the park and to ease a burden on local law enforcement.

“I think some people are afraid that we’re trying to take a right away, but it has nothing to do with taking a right away,” Tripp said. “We have city ordinances that set our times in our parks, we have city ordinances that say no alcohol and we have city ordinances that say no glass containers in city parks. And so this basically, from what I understand, is along those same lines. It’s just kind of how we want our parks used.”

The ordinance regarding handguns in city parks that has previously been discussed and read twice by the council originally prohibited the possession of handguns, whereas the updated ordinance is expected to prohibit only the carrying of handguns in city parks — allowing licensees to keep their firearm in their vehicle.

“(Russellville Police Chief Tom McMillen) stated that having one in your car’s probably good enough and you could get to it if you have to,” Hollis said. “That’s why we changed it from possess to carry.”

The updated ordinance is expected to be discussed at the Russellville City Council’s regular meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday. Eaton said because of the rewording in the ordinance, it will be required to be read an additional three times before its voted on.

(A) A local unit of government shall not enact any ordinance or regulation pertaining to, or regulate in any other manner, the ownership, transfer, transportation, carrying, or possession of firearms, ammunition for firearms, or components of firearms, except as otherwise provided in state or federal law.

(B) This shall not prevent the enactment of an ordinance regulating or forbidding the unsafe discharge of a firearm.

Once again the logic of our leadership escapes me. Why would you pass a law that inconviences citizens but saves the police from remembering who owns a park? Obviously the local criminal element will ignore the law and will be the only armed persons in the park. Those persons with CWP's are the good guys and have been checked out by state and federal officials. This ordinance increases the dangers to the average citizen and does no one any real good. George Holt is right, our second amendment rights are being infringed upon again. I think the reasons given in favor of this law are invalid and a cover for a different agenda. If you want people to be safer let the bad guys know that the good guys are armed.

I agree, maybe the officers should leave their weapon in the car and see how fast they get to the car if someone decides that they DO NOT want to follow the rules and carry a gun into the park and start shooting at them. If this passes, I will no longer visit Russellville parks. My gun is on me for self-defense and for defense of my family. I don't think all of Russellville's parks are police protected enough for me to trust a criminal not to carry in the park.

“(Russellville Police Chief Tom McMillen) stated that having one in your car’s probably good enough and you could get to it if you have to,” Hollis said. “That’s why we changed it from possess to carry.”

Really??? If that's adequate for protection, perhaps the chief will require his officers to leave their guns in their squad cars. They can go to the car if they have to. That's probably good enough.